 Catholic Church in Croatia | |
|---|---|
| Croatian:Katolička Crkva u Hrvatskoj | |
 | |
| Type | National polity |
| Orientation | Latin andGreek Catholic |
| Governance | Episcopal |
| Pope | Leo XIV |
| Apostolic Nuncio | Giorgio Lingua |
| President | Dražen Kutleša |
| Region | Croatia |
| Language | Croatian,Latin |
| Headquarters | Kaptol (Zagreb) |
| Founder | Pope John IV and Abbot Martin, according to tradition |
| Origin | c. 65: in Roman Illyricum c. 640: Croatian Christianity |
| Members | 3,215,177 (2021) |
| Ministers | c. 3800[1] |
| Official website | Croatian Bishops' Conference |
TheCatholic Church in Croatia (Croatian:Katolička Crkva u Hrvatskoj) is part of the worldwideCatholic Church that is under the spiritual leadership of the Pope. TheLatin Church in Croatia is administered by theCroatian Bishops' Conference centered inZagreb, and it comprises five archdioceses, 13 dioceses and onemilitary ordinariate.Dražen Kutleša is the Archbishop of Zagreb.
A 2011 census estimated that there were 3.7 million baptized Latin Catholics and about 20,000 baptizedEastern Catholics of theGreek Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia in Croatia, comprising 86.3% of the population. As of 2017[update], weekly church attendance was relatively high compared to other Catholic nations in Europe, at around 27%.[2] A 2021 Croatian census showed that 83% of the population is Catholic and 3.3% isSerbian Orthodox.[3]
The nationalMarian shrine of Croatia is inMarija Bistrica, while the country's patron isSaint Joseph: theCroatian Parliament unanimously declared him to be the national patron in 1687.[4]
The western part of theBalkan Peninsula was conquered by theRoman Empire by 168 BC after a long drawn out process known as theIllyrian Wars.[5]
Following their conquests, the Romans organised the area into the province ofIllyricum, which was eventually split up intoDalmatia andPannonia. Through being part of the Roman Empire, various religious cults were brought into the region. This included theLevantine-originated religion of Christianity. Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 391.[6] In 395, the Roman Empire was divided into two parts, and the dividing line went through theBalkans. Illyricum fell under the rule of Rome and the rest fell under the rule ofByzantium.[6]
Indeed,Salona, the capital city of the province of Dalmatia, was one of the earliest places in the region connected with Christianity. It was able to gain influence first among some of theDalmatian Jews living in the city. St.Titus, a disciple of St.Paul the Apostle and the subject of theEpistle to Titus in theNew Testament, was active in Dalmatia. Indeed, in theEpistle to the Romans, Paul himself speaks of visiting "Illyricum", but he may have meantIllyria Graeca.
Somewhere in the early 7th century theArchdiocese of Salona vanished with the plundering raids ofSclaveni andPannonian Avars, and Roman population found refuge in theDiocletian's Palace and other coastal cities and islands.[7][8]Pope Gregory I (590–604) in his letters wrote about the arrival of Slavs in Dalmatia and Istria.[9] Soon the Holy See, which had jurisdiction and ecclesiastical order in the territory of formerDiocese of Illyricum (and parts of thePraetorian prefecture of Illyricum), began the process of Christianization.[10][11]
TheCroats settled in the area of present-day Croatia after successful war against the Avars, liberating province of Dalmatia.[12]Francis Dvornik considered that to the Croatian victorius advance is related account fromMiracles of Saint Demetrius (7–8th century) about the revolt and liberation of Christian hostages of the Avars between rivers Sava, Drava and Danube.[12][13] The Croats had their first official contact with the Holy See in year 641 when thePope John IV papal envoy led byAbbot Martin came to them to redeem Christian captives and the bones of the martyrsAnastasius,Maurus andVenancio.[14] Such event "is witness to the civilised and peaceful co-existence established between the indigenous Christian population and the new rulers of what had once been Roman Dalmatia and Illyria".[9]
There is little information about the "Baptism of the Croats", but it is known that it was peacefully and freely accepted, and that it started since the 7th century. Byzantine emperorConstantine Porphyrogenitus in hisDe Administrando Imperio (10th century) wrote that theHeraclius (610–641), "obtained and brought priests from Rome and made of them an archbishop, bishop, presbyters and deacons, which then baptised the Croats".[15] After the baptism, the Croats "made a convent, confirmed with their own signature, and by oaths sure and binding in the name ofSt. Peter the apostle, that never would they go upon a foreign country and make war upon it, but would rather live at peace with all who were willing to do so. They received from the same Pope of Rome this benediction: If some other foreigners should come against the country of these same Croats and bring war upon it, then might God fight for the Croats and protect them, and Peter the disciple of Christ give unto them victories".[16] Nevertheless the exact dating of the convect agreement (early 7th or late 9th century), it is again alluded inPope John VIII's letters (879, 881).[17] Another possible evidence for Roman missionary work among the Croats in the 7th century would be letter ofPope Agatho (c. 681) in which are mentioned bishops active among Slavs.[8]Thomas the Archdeacon in his early 13th centuryHistoria Salonitana also mentioned Johannes de Ravenna, who was sent by the Pope in the mid-7th century to organize church life and restore Archdiocese of Salona, becoming in the process Archbishop of Split.[8][18]
New population certainly did not completely convert at the time as initially probably encompassed only the Croatian elite members (pagan burial customs ceased in the mid-9th century),[19][20] neither such conversions are instantaneous events because missionary work seeks building a Christian mentality.[21][8] The additional conversion stages were in the late 8th and early 9th century byPatriarchate of Aquileia andPrince-Archbishopric of Salzburg underFrankish supervision, and of paganNarentines during the reign of Byzantine emperorBasil I (867–886).[15][22][8]
First certain signs of Church organization revival and active papal policy can be dated to the mid-or-late-8th century (in relation to the Carolingian political influence), with the Salonitan Archdiocese replaced as ecclesial centre byRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Zadar, and then by the Archbishopric of Spalathon (Split) by the late-8th century.[23] The latter initially probably acted independently, withoutmetropolitan bishop.[24] Croatia after theCharlemagne's division of areas of Aquileia and Salzburg became under jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Aquileia, and some Frankish priests are mentioned in historical sources (Teudebert and Aldefred in Nin, Gumpert inBijaći).[25] The activity ofLombard missionaires fromPrincipality of Benevento could be argued on the appearance of St.Bartholomew the Apostle, while of Northern Italian missionaries the appearance of St.Ambrose, St.Martha and possibly St.Martin titulary.[26]
ThePax Nicephori (812) between the Franks and Byzantium did not influence the ecclesial borders and jurisdiction of Croatia.[27] By the mid-9th century, Croats have already been fully included in a large European (West) Christian community. Croatian rulersMislav (835–845),Trpimir I (845–864) and many others were building churches andBenedictine monasteries.[28]Pope Nicholas I warned the bishop and clergy of largeDiocese of Nin that cannot establish new churches without papal approval, a reference to the foundation of the Diocese of Nin itself.[29] Its formation was probably an act of Croatian dukes and local clergy to separate from Byzantine influence,[27] because in the second half of the 9th century Byzantine emperor Basil I andEcumenical Patriarch of ConstantinoplePhotios I tried to expand on the already present Christian organization of the Roman Church in the region of former Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum, causing so-calledPhotian schism (867), managing to get control only ofFirst Bulgarian Empire (871) andPrincipality of Serbia (873).[10][11] Before that, Constantinople Patriarchate did not have any jurisdictional pretensions over Western Illyricum.[30] The presumed political alliance of dukeZdeslav (878–879) with Byzantium some historians interpreted "as an ecclesiastical submission of Croatia to the Constantinople Patriarchate", but it is doubtful, as would certainly return under Roman Church jurisdiction during duke Branimir.[30] However, the Holy See under Pope John VIII did not have complete power over the region of Croatia as would temporarily compete with Patriarch Valpert of the Patriarchate of Aquileia,[31] but eventually in the 880s the bishop of Nin, Teodosius (episcopus Croatorum), got the papalpallium and temporarily until his death in 892 united the Diocese of Nin with Archdiocense of Split.[32]
In 879, Croatian dukeBranimir (879–892) wrote a letter toPope John VIII in which he promised him loyalty and obedience. Pope John VIII replied with a letter on 7 June 879, in which he wrote that he celebrated a Mass at the tomb of St Peter on which he invoked God's blessing on Branimir and his people, recognizing Duchy of Croatia as an independent and sovereign state.[33] Both duke Trpimir (accompanied by son Peter, wife Ventescela, nobles Bribina, Peter, Mary, Presila) and Branimir (accompanied by wife Maruša) underdertook pilgrimages recorded in theEvangelistary of Cividale.[34]Pope Leo VI while confirming the2nd Church Council of Split (928) mentioned that the Archbishop of Split was "in Croatorum terra".[35] The church councils in 925 and 928 were held to discuss about the bishopric of Nin, which bishopGregory of Nin called himself as "Episcopus Croatensis" (a title which reappeared in the mid-11th century with the formation ofDiocese of Knin and disappeared after the establishment ofDiocese of Zagreb in late 11th century),[35] and the usage of non-Latin liturgy (forbidden in 925, in fear of heresies in a foreign language and political influence of Byzantium).[36][37]
Since the 9–10th century in Croatia existed a unique phenomenon in the entire world of Catholicism (except temporary instances in Czechia and Poland), a non-Latin liturgy that was held inChurch Slavonic language withGlagolitic script byCyril and Methodius,[36][38] approved byPope Adrian II andPope John VIII.[39][40] There's still scholarly debate whether Cyril and Methodius or their pupils visited Croatia until the end of the 9th century and whether the Glagolitic script also spread with direct Byantine mission in the mid-11th century.[36][38][41] The brothers did not baptize the Croats as they were already baptized.[40] In 1060/1061 thePope Nicholas II declared "under the threat of excommunication forbade ... to be ordained in Holy Orders if they have not learnt Latin",[36] butPope Gregory VII sent legate Girard under whom the "national synod of Dalmatian and Croatian bishops (in 1074–1075) rehabilitated Glagolitism".[42] Despite continued disputes in the usage of Slavic language in liturgy, as Glagolitians claimed that the script was created by St.Jerome and were adherents of the Catholic Church andcanon law,[36][40] the 13th century PopeInnocent IV again officially approved use of Church Slavonic language and the Glagolitic script to Filipbishop of Senj,[43] thus making Croats the only Latin Catholics in the world allowed to use a language other than Latin in their liturgy prior to theSecond Vatican Council in 1962.[36]George of Slavonia in c. 1390 recorded that the "Croatian bishop knew both languages, Latin and Croatian, and was the first to celebrate mass sometimes in one and sometimes in the other language", called the Glagolitic script as "alphabetum chrawaticum", being used by the clergy in Istria and other eleven Croatian (arch)bishoprics (Kerbavia, Knin, Krk, Split, Trogir, Šibenik, Zadar, Nin, Rab, Osor, Senj).[36] Glagolitians were supported by Croatian noble families, and Glagolitic script was used by several Catholic orders,Franciscans (mostlyThird Order of Saint Francis with whom the "Glagolitians" in Croatia are generally associated with), but alsoBenedictine andPauline Fathers, and later alsoProtestants in Istria.[40]
In the period ofEast–West Schism (1054), Croatian kingsStephen I (1030–1058/1060) andPeter Krešimir IV (1058–1074) confirmed allegiance and support to the reforms of the Holy See.[44] KingDemetrius Zvonimir wascrowned on 8 October 1075/76[45] atSalona in the Basilica of Saint Peter and Moses (known today as theHollow Church) by Gebizon, a representative ofPope Gregory VII.[46] He was granted the royal title by Gregory after pledging "Peter's Pence" to the Pope, and took an oath of allegiance to Pope, by which he promised his support in the implementations of the Church reforms in Croatia.[47][48] After the Papal legate crowned him, Zvonimir gave theBenedictine monastery ofSaint Gregory inVrana to the Pope as a sign of loyalty and as an accommodation for papal legates coming to Croatia.[49]
By the 11th and 12th century existed around 50 Benedictine monasteries, with most important being theAbbey of St. Chrysogonus in Zadar (918/986) favoured by theTrpimirović dynasty, followed by St. Andrew near Pula, St. Stephen and St. Mary in Solin (975), St. Maxim in Korčula (997–998), St. Michael in Limska Draga (before 1000), St. Benedict on island of Lokrum near Dubrovnik (1023), St. Cassian in Poreč (1030), St. Peter on Osor (1044), St. Peter in Supetarska Draga on island of Rab (1059), St. Peter in Selo near Split (1069),St. Mary in Zadar (1065), St. John in Trogir (1108), St. Mary on Mljet (1151), and St. Michael in Kotor (1166) among others.[50] Among them St. Mary in Zadar (consecrated in 1091[50]), during abbessesČika andVekenega, was particularly influential for the implementation of theGregorian reform, cultural-religious life, literary traditions and international relations.[51]
When Croatia lost its own dynasty and entered into apersonal union with Hungary in 1102, the Benedictines were slowly dying out, while the mendicant orders, especiallyFranciscans andDominicans were becoming more important. By the end of the 12th century also arrivedCistercians, "important intermediaries in the inclusion of Croatia within the mainstream of Mediaeval Western Christian civilisation".[52] Religious and cultural formation of Croats was also strongly influenced byJesuits. Church writers from northern Croatia andDubrovnik, which was a free center of the Croatian culture, have done a lot for standardization and expansion of the Croatian literary language.
During theHundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War that lasted from the late 15th to late 16th century Croats strongly fought against the Turks which resulted in the fact that the westernmost border of theOttoman Empire and Europe became entrenched on the soil of the Croatian Kingdom. In 1519,Croatian Kingdom was called theAntemurale Christianitatis byPope Leo X.
TheAustrian Empire signed aconcordat with theHoly See in 1855 which regulated the Catholic Church within the empire.[53]
In Yugoslavia, the Croatian bishops were part of theBishops' Conference of Yugoslavia.
The situation of the Catholic Church in the new kingdom was affected by the pro-Orthodox policy of the Yugoslav government and the strong influence of theSerbian Orthodox Church in the country's politics. After thecoup of 1929, several Catholic organizations and institutes were closed or dissolved, specially in Croatia, as the Club of Seniorates, the Eagle Movement (Orlovstvo) and the Catholic Action.[54] Some members ofEastern Catholic churches, such asCroatian Greek Catholics, were persecuted and forced to convert toOrthodox Christianity.[55]
In 1941, aNazi puppet state, theIndependent State of Croatia (NDH), was established by thefascist dictatorAnte Pavelić and hisUstaše movement. The Ustaše regime pursued agenocidal policy against theSerbs (who wereEastern Orthodox Christians), Jews andRomani.[56]
HistorianMichael Phayer wrote that the creation of the NDH was initially welcomed by the hierarchy of theCatholic Church and by many Catholic priests.Ante Pavelić was anti-Serb and pro-Catholic, viewingCatholicism as an integral part ofCroat culture.[57] A large number of Catholic priests and intellectuals assumed important roles within the Ustaše.[56]
British writerPeter Hebblethwaite wrote that Pavelić was anxious to get diplomatic relations and a Vatican blessing for the new 'Catholic state' but that "neither was forthcoming".[58] TheArchbishop of Zagreb,Aloysius Stepinac, wanted Croatia's independence from the Serb dominatedYugoslav state which he considered to be"the jail of the Croatian nation", so he arranged the audience with Pius XII for Pavelić.[57]
Vatican under Secretary of StateGiovanni Montini (laterPope Paul VI)'s minutes before the meeting noted that no recognition of the new state could come before a peace treaty and that "The Holy See must be impartial; it must think of all; there are Catholics on all sides to whom the [Holy See] must be respectful."[58] The Vatican refused formal recognition of NDH butPius XII sent aBenedictine abbotGiuseppe Ramiro Marcone as his apostolic visitor. Pius was criticized for his reception of Pavelić but he still hoped that Pavelić would defeatcommunistPartisans and reconvert many of the 200,000 who had left the Catholic Church for theSerbian Orthodox Church sinceWorld War I.[57]
Many Croatian nationalist clergy supported the Pavelić's regime push to drive out Serbs, Gypsies and Jews, or force their conversion to Catholicism.[59] Phayer wrote that it is well known that many Catholic clerics participated directly or indirectly in Ustaše campaigns of violence.[60] Despite that, Pavelić told Nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop that while the lower clergy supported the Ustaše, the bishops, and particularlyArchbishop Stepinac, were opposed to the movement because of "Vatican international policy".[58]
Phayer wrote that Stepinac came to be known as "judenfreundlich" ("Jew friendly") to the Nazi-linked Ustaše regime, and suspended a number of priest collaborators in his diocese.[61]
Archbishop Stepinac made many public statements criticizing developments in the NDH. On Sunday, 24 May 1942, to the irritation of Ustaša officials, he used the pulpit and a diocesan letter to condemn genocide in specific terms, although not mentioning Serbs:
All men and all races are children of God; all without distinction. Those who are Gypsies, Black, European, or Aryan all have the same rights…. for this reason, the Catholic Church had always condemned, and continues to condemn, all injustice and all violence committed in the name of theories of class, race, or nationality. It is not permissible to persecute Gypsies or Jews because they are thought to be an inferior race.[62]
He also wrote a letter directly to Pavelić on 24 February 1943, stating: "The very Jasenovac camp is a stain on the honor of the NDH. Poglavnik! To those who look at me as a priest and a bishop I say as Christ did on the cross: Father forgive them for they know not what they do."[63]
Thirty-one priests were arrested following Stepinac's July and October 1943 explicit condemnations of race murders being read from pulpits across Croatia.[64]Martin Gilbert wrote that Stepinac,"who in 1941 had welcomed Croat independence, subsequently condemned Croat atrocities against both Serbs and Jews, and himself saved a group of Jews".[65]
According to historianJozo Tomasevich however, neither Stepinac nor the Croatian Catholic hierarchy or the Vatican ever made a public protest regarding thepersecution of Serbs and theSerbian Orthodox Church by the Ustaše and added that "it seems the Catholic Church fully supported the Ustasha regime and its policies".[56] Tomašević claimed that the Catholic Press also praised Pavelić and the Ustaše.[56]
TheYugoslav Partisansexecuted two priests,Petar Perica and Marijan Blažić, as collaborationists on the island ofDaksa on 25 October 1944. The Partisans killed Fra Maksimilijan Jurčić nearVrgorac in late January 1945.[66]
TheNational Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH) originally foresaw a greater degree of religious freedom in the country. In 1944 ZAVNOH still left open the possibility of religious education in schools.[67]
This idea was scuttled after Yugoslav leaderJosip Broz removed secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of CroatiaAndrija Hebrang and replaced him with hardliner Vladimir Bakarić.[68]
In 1945, the retiredbishop of Dubrovnik,Josip Marija Carević, was murdered by Yugoslav authorities.[69] BishopJosip Srebrnić was sent to jail for two months.[70] After the war, the number of Catholic publications in Yugoslavia decreased from one hundred to only three.[71]
In 1946, the Communist regime introduced theLaw on State Registry Books which allowed the confiscation of church registries and other documents.[72] On 31 January 1952, the communist regime officially banned all religious education in public schools.[62]
That year the regime also expelled the Catholic Faculty of Theology from theUniversity of Zagreb, to which it was not restored until democratic changes in 1991.[73][74]
In 1984, the Catholic Church held a National Eucharistic Congress in Marija Bistrica.[75] The central Mass held on 9 September was attended by 400,000 people, including 1100 priests, 35 bishops and archbishops, as well as five cardinals. The Mass was led by CardinalFranz König, a friend ofAloysius Stepinac from their early studies. In 1987 theBishops' Conference of Yugoslavia issued a statement calling on the government to respect the right of parents to obtain a religious education for their children.[76]
After Croatia declared itsindependence from Yugoslavia, the Catholic Church regained its full freedom and influence. Firstnuncio in Croatia was Mons.Giulio Einauldi, appointed on 13 January 1992.[77]Croatian Bishops' Conference was founded on 15 May 1993, by exclusion from theBishops' Conference of Yugoslavia.
During theCroatian War of Independence, Catholicism and Orthodoxy were often cited as a basic division between Croats and Serbs, which led to a massive destruction of churches (some 1,426 were destroyed or damaged).
The Croatian Bishops' Conference establishedCroatian Catholic Radio in 1997.[78]
In the Republic of Croatia, the Catholic Church has defined its legal position as autonomous in some areas, thus making it able to provide religious education in state primary and secondary schools to those students who choose it, establish Catholic schools and conduct pastoral care among the Catholics in the armed forces and police.
Through the ratification oftreaties between the Holy See and Croatia on 9 April 1997, treaties that regulate legal issues, cooperation in education and culture, conducting pastoral care among the Catholics in thearmed forces andpolice and financing Church from the state budget came into force. As regards to financing, the Church has received the following amounts of money over the 2000s: 2001; 461.3 blnkunas, 2004–2007; 532 bln kunas, 2008–2011;475.5 bln kunas, 2012–2013; 523.5 bln kunas, plus around 200 million kunas per each year for teachers of religious studies in schools, around 60 million kunas for maintenance churches which are considered to be acultural heritage etc.[79]
The Catholic Church in Croatia in modern times is very active in social and political life. It has implemented a number of actions in conservative spirit to promote its values such as: non-working Sunday, punishment of the crimes of the communist era, introducingreligious education in schools, protection of marriage as the union of a man and a woman (2013 referendum), opposition to abortion (campaigning for "protecting human life from conception to natural death"), opposition to euthanasia, promotion of natural methods of family planning and the treatment of infertility, and opposition to artificial birth control methods.
The published data from the2011 Croatian census included acrosstab of ethnicity and religion which showed that a total of 3,697,143 Catholic believers (86.28% of the total population) was divided between the following ethnic groups:[80]
Within Croatia the hierarchy consists of:
The bishops are organized into the Croatian Conference of Bishops, which is presided by the Archbishop of Zagreb Mons.Dražen Kutleša.
There are also historical bishoprics, including:
As of 2009, there were 1570Catholic parishes in Croatia.[81]
There are threeFranciscan provinces in the country:
Some of the notable Croatian missionaries wereAnte Gabrić in India, Bl.Marija Krucifiksa Kozulić in Peru,Vjeko Ćurić in Rwanda etc.
Archbishop Aloysius Stepinac established Caritas of the Archdiocese of Zagreb in the 1930s. One of his predecessors,Josip Lang, promoted caritative work. In December of the 1989, Bishop Conference of Yugoslavia (BKJ) established Caritas, which was succedeed byCaritas Croatia in 1992/1993.[82]
There are many Catholic humanitarian organizations; among them,Marijini obroci (Mary's meals),[83] Kap dobrote ('Drop of goodness')[84] etc.
There are four faculties ofCatholic theology (KBF's), inZagreb, Split, Đakovo and Rijeka.Faculty of Philosophy and Religious Sciences (FFRZ) in Zagreb is run byJesuits.
Catholic seminaries are in Zagreb (Archdiocesian and Interdiocesian), Split, Zadar and Sinj.
There are 10 Catholic schools (elementary and secondary) in Croatia, in Rijeka, Zadar, Zagreb, Šibenik, Split, Dubrovnik, Slavonski Brod and Sinj.[85]
Catholic Church played vital role in the preservance ofCroatian culture and heavily influencedCroatian literature from poets (Marko Marulić,Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević,Antun Branko Šimić) to playwrights. There are several Croatianincunabulas related to Church which are among first printed books in Croatia. Moreover, some of first Croatian written monuments were also connected with Church affairs (Baška tablet).
DuringCroatian National Revival andCroatian Catholic movement Catholic media played an important role.
Today, the most influential Catholic weekly newspaper isGlas Koncila, established to cover news from the Second Vatican Council. During Croatian War of Independence in the 1990s,Croatian Catholic News Agency (IKA) was founded and in 1997Croatian Catholic Radio (HKR) started broadcasting.[78] In 2015,Laudato TV, private Catholic TV, started broadcasting. In 2018, IKA and HKR were incorporated in the Croatian Catholic Network (HKM).[86]
Among the larger publishing houses are Glas Koncila,Kršćanska sadašnjost [hr] andTeovizija [hr] with headquarters inZagreb's Kaptol, the SalesianSalesiana [hr],Verbum [hr] (Split), UPT (Đakovo), and others.
There are also several influentialscientific journals (Bogoslovska smotra,Nova prisutnost,Obnovljeni Život), some of them being published more than a century. "Bitno.net" is an influentialweb portal withpodcast.[87]
Croatian Radiotelevision andCroatian Radio regularly broadcastHoly Mass on Sundays, and their programs also include Christian programs (Pozitivno,Biblia andMir i dobro on the First Channel of the Croatian Television (HTV 1),Duhovna misao andTrag vjere on the First Channel of the Croatian Radio (HR 1), andHvaljen Isus i Marija daily onRadio Sljeme).[88]
Although the vast majority of Croatians declare themselves as Catholics, a certain share of them do not follow the Church's teaching on moral and social issues. According to aPew Research poll from 2017, only 27% of respondents attended mass regularly, 25% supported the Church's stance on contraception, 43% supported the Church's stance on ordination of women and 38% thought abortion should be illegal in most cases. On the other hand, 66% supported the Church's stance on same-sex marriage.[89]
The Catholic Church in Croatia is criticised by some for promoting and toleratingneo-fascism[90] among its ranks:
Each year in December, the Catholic church in Croatia holds the annual memorialmass[91] dedicated toUstaše leaderAnte Pavelić inZagreb andSplit. These masses are known to attract groups of Pavelić's supporters dressed in clothes with Ustaša insignia.[92][93]
During the funeral of convicted ustašaWWII concentration camp commanderDinko Šakić, priest Vjekoslav Lasić said that "every honest Croat should be proud of Šakić's name"[94][95] and that "court which convicted Šakić, also convicted Croatia and its people".[96] These statements were strongly condemned bySimon Wiesenthal Center andCroatian Helsinki Committee.[94]
Croatian presidentKolinda Grabar-Kitarović was criticised on live TV by Croatian friar Luka Prcela for saying that theIndependent State of Croatia was a criminal state and wasn't independent. Prcela apparently said that the Independent State of Croatia "never killed anyone outside its own borders" and that former twoleft-wing presidents of Croatia were "anti-Croatian".[97]
Bishop of SisakVlado Košić was one of the signatories of a petition for the introduction of the fascist Ustasha movement saluteZa dom spremni to the official use in theCroatian Armed Forces.[98]
On 1 July 2017, Don Anđelko Kaćunko held a memorial mass forUstasha Black Legion commanderJure Francetić on which he described Francetić as "a patriot who was willing to give his life for the homeland".[99]
At its season on June 9th and 10th 1687 Croatian Parliament encouraged by the Bishop of ZagrebMartin Borković, unanimously declared St Joseph to be the patron of theCroatian Kingdom
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